Sea Service Panel Focuses on
New U.S. Maritime Strategy
By DAISY RIDGWAY KHALIFA, Special Correspondent
The fledgling U.S. maritime
strategy developed jointly by
the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast
Guard was the central topic of the
Sea Service Panel discussion at the
Navy League’s national convention
last month in Palm Desert, Calif.
On the panel were Maj. Gen.
John F. Kelly, commanding general,
I Marine Expeditionary Force
(Forward); Rear Adm. Frank Thorp
IV, Navy chief of information; Rear
Adm. Mary E. Landry, Coast Guard
director of governmental and public affairs; and James E. Caponiti,
associate administrator for national
security at the Maritime Administration (MARAD). Richard C.
Macke, Navy League national vice
president for sea services liaison,
moderated the discussion.
SANDY HUFFAKER JR.
Richard C. Macke, Navy League
national vice president for sea services liaison; Navy Rear Adm. Frank
Thorp IV, chief of information; and
James E. Caponiti, associate administrator for national security at the
Maritime Administration, chat at the
Sea Service Panel discussion.
The maritime strategy, entitled
“A Cooperative Strategy for 21st
Century Seapower,” was unveiled
Oct. 17 and focuses on six key
areas: forward presence, deterrence, sea control, power projection, maritime security, and
humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
Thorp gave a brief overview of
the strategy, stressing that, with
regard to sea control, “We cannot
take the freedom to operate around
the world for granted.”
In terms of U.S. naval power
projection at sea and onshore, he
said that because “we deal in the
21st century, we have to maintain
the ability to fight and win, and do
it with robust sealift command and
maritime industrial capability.”
Of the priority within the maritime strategy for public outreach,
he said the U.S. Navy relies on the
Navy League to educate the nation
and the world about U.S. maritime
capability and service.
“We just cannot take for granted
today that Americans understand
the need for maritime services,”
said Thorp.
Landry said she “applauded the
cooperative strategy” of the maritime agencies and underscored the
importance of leveraging the Coast
Guard’s multimission service and
statutory law capabilities as a component of the nation’s naval
defense. She said the service’s parent agency, the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) is
“bridging capabilities between the
Department of Defense (DoD) and
the Coast Guard.
“We can’t afford to duplicate
efforts in DHS and DoD,” said
Landry. “We all have a role and we
all have a challenge ahead of us.”
She said the recapitalization of
Coast Guard assets has been critical, and thanked the Navy League
for supporting the service in its
expansion efforts. Landry also
addressed the issue of the opening
of Arctic sea lanes, stating that the
issues there “demonstrate our challenges around the world” in terms
of sovereignty, energy interests,
security and maritime domain
awareness.
Upon being asked about the
debate in Congress over the Arctic
and the ratification of the U.N.
Convention on the Law of the Sea,
she said, “The U.S. needs to be an
honest broker among competing
interests. And if we don’t sign [rat-ify] the treaty, we won’t be able to
participate in those talks.”
Caponiti discussed MARAD’s
work with Military Sealift Command
(MSC), stating that the collaboration
had been very good, and he stressed
the value of MARAD’s Cargo Preference program.
“We need to maintain the
Merchant Marine and Cargo Preference programs,” he said. “The
MSC is the backbone of our commercial capability to go to war.”
Kelly answered questions about
the state of the war and morale of
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, citing the progress made in areas like
the Al Anbar province, where security is being handed over to Iraqi
officials. He also discussed the effort
to increase the end-strength of the
Marine Corps by attracting quality
recruits, and he described the
Corps’ equipment and stealth capabilities as “unprecedented.” ■
